[Tom M]

Doc Watson, dubbed the father of the flat pickin’ style for guitar has passed away. He was 89. Blind since he was one year old, Doc learned to play many instruments, but he revolutionized guitar with a unique style of picking that would take melodies traditionally belonging to the fiddle and adapt them for  guitar.

There are few folk or roots guitarists that don’t owe a huge debt to Doc. If you ever get a chance to listen to the old Nitty Gritty Dirt band album “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” there’s a great conversation between Doc Watson and Merle Travis, two legends on their meeting each other for the first time. Doc tells Merle that he named his son after him.

Merle Watson and Doc would travel and perform extensively until Merle was killed in a farming accident. Doc was devastated and said that he “lost his best friend”.

R.I.P. Doc. I have lots of your music to listen to tonight.

[Lenny E]

Tom, that ole Doc Watson must have been one old feller. Heck, his best buddy Sherlock Holmes and arch nemesis Professor Moriarty died over a hundred years ago.

Now Doc Watson had to be pushing 160-170 years old or older. He must have been sipping brandy made from the fruit off the “tree of life”. Don’t you think it was about time he passed on?

All Joking and kidding aside , Doc Watson was one hell of a picker and will be missed by all.

[Tom M]

And how he split his time between Baker St. in London and North Carolina musty have been quite a strain.

[Lenny E]

Tom,

All joking and kidding aside, he will be missed. That ole Bluegrass is real US music, which is Euro music filtered thru the Appalachians and old (from years ago) self reliant American Spirit Experience. The guy was blind! Geez, he didnt go all OWS on everyone crying about free crap for him and everyone else . He made the best of his lot, excelled and like cream in milk..triumphed and rose to the top.

I’m a gonna miss him. The Lenny says..”Why couldn’t worthless Justin Bieber, or Madonna bite the dust instead?”

[David Gerard]

I never got to see Doc but I have been collecting and listening to his misic for years. Martin Guitars made a Doc Watson. model.

[Tom M]

David,
I saw him at the Schubert in New Haven. The opening act was a Lady banjo player who was quite good, but I can’t recall her name.

Anyway, it was mostly Doc and his grandson with an occasional fiddler or bass. Wonderful night. He was already eighty something.

Lenny,
There was a story about a worker for Merlefest, the annual charity concert he established in memory of his son, who called up and asked for him. His wife said he was unavailable, as he was on the roof fixing shingles.

[Lenny E]

Tom,

I’m a swilling beer and watching an English channel out of HK (Falling Down..a good but yet depressing movie) and a wishing I was back in Texas..kissing my wife, refinishing a stock on a mauser or SKS, shooting venomous snakes, fiddling in the garden, mowing the lawn or a going hunting or fishing etc. But that’s not to be, because I have to work for the family.

That ole Doc..a fixing shingles on the roof. A blind guy for Christs sakes. That says something about self reliance, and the American spirit.

I’ve been all around this ole small globe and no one..Asians, Latin countrys, Europeans , Middle east folks, can hold a candle to the US. That’s why it breaks my heart so many folks that want to work hard, can’t find work in the US.

My wife told me something once that really stuck with me. We bought a new house and I said we need to change to locks..she always says who do we need to call to do that? I said..no one..I will do that.

Change a tire, reset the error message on the car, change the oil etc., rotate the tires, float the barrel on a rifle, paint the walls, replace a recepticle, till a field, plant a garden, put a new roof on, dig a well (simple stuff) but they all call someone to do that.

Finally one day she piped up and said “I know now why the American people are the number 1 in all the world. Its because you know how to do everything and need not depend on anyone!”

Now I figure Ole Doc is a up in heaven right now, sight restored, a picking in front of the throne of GOD. Jesus is a tapping his foot, the angels are a singing along and the Holy Spirit is a trying hard to dig up a dulcimer. Now thats something I’d like to behold.

[Tom M]

I figure Earl Scruggs has introduced Doc to Lester Flatt, and Jimmie Martin, Bill Monroe and some others must be havin’ a heckuva time. There’s good music in hebbin tonight!

[Author]

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